USAID Administrator Mark Green's Remarks at a Water Kiosk Opening

Remarks

For Immediate Release

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Hyderabad, India

ADMINISTRATOR GREEN: Thank you. Welcome, everyone. First, let me say how honored I am to be here, as India hosts the Global Entrepreneurship Summit with the United States. I cannot think of a better place than India and Hyderabad to explore how entrepreneurship and innovation are accelerating economic development and advancing the human condition.

I must also say I am honored to be here in Hyderabad because this is clearly a city on the rise. Hyderabad is on the rise because of good leadership. Hyderabad is on the rise because of all of you. You are the power for the good leadership. As we all know, as India's urban centers continue to grow, providing clean water and sanitation for all residents will become an even more important priority. Today, 540 million people in India lack access to safe, affordable, reliable water. But the Government of India has placed water and sanitation at the center of its national development efforts, taking it on at the national, state, and city levels.

For this effort to be successful, most importantly, it starts with all of you here at the community level. You are the real driver to India's Swachh Bharat Mission. At USAID, we believe the purpose of our assistance must be to end the need for its existence. In other words, we want to work with our partners, like the Government of India, to help strengthen its capacity to take on its own challenges, and to lift up the people of India. Not because the U.S. seeks to withdraw - far from it. But because we know that every country and every community wants to provide for a brighter future for its own people.

India is showing us the way on this cause in many ways. And we at USAID know that we have a great deal to learn from our partners here in India. So, as the Government of India continues to invest in efforts to ensure that its citizens have access to clean water, we at USAID promise we will be here to help. We are longtime friends of India, and we are great believers in India's future. We stand ready to help her claim that bright future.

And that is why I am proud to be here to inaugurate this new water kiosk. Working alongside our partners at the Safe Water Network, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, and Honeywell, this project will provide an additional 3,000 people with access to clean, safe, affordable drinking water. Over the next year, this collaboration will install 50 kiosks around Hyderabad to provide another 150,000 people with access to potable drinking water.

These kiosks will help people live healthier lives free from preventable waterborne illnesses. This means that fewer children, fewer infants will have less life-threatening diarrhea, and we know they will have improved nutrition. With clean water on demand, women and girls can skip waiting hours in lines and instead they can spend their time in school, at work, or maybe even starting their own business. It will boost Hyderabad's capacity to develop and to rise and to move further along in India's journey to prosperity. Again, we look forward to walking with India, as India rises to claim her bright, bright future. Thank you.